Practice does not make perfect

I had a Tae Kwon Do teacher say, “practice makes permanent.” Meaning: How you practice is just as important as how much you practice. Because if you keep practicing something incorrectly, you’ll never get better. You’ll become stuck in the wrong way, and you’ll never reach “perfection.”

Another saying that’s more accurate than “practice makes perfect” is “practice makes progress.” Practice and perfection are asymptotic. You’ll never reach absolute perfection, no matter how much you try. But you can keep getting better. The idea is continuous improvement without falling prey to perfectionism.